A Times Editorial

Bus drivers should merit public's trust

It isn't hard to imagine how anxious the 10-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy must have felt, abandoned by their school bus driver in a strange neighborhood.

This story could have had a tragic ending.

But luck was with 11-year-old Bobby Woods and his sister, Jacquelyn, on Tuesday. Rather than wandering aimlessly and perhaps becoming even more lost as evening approached, they started knocking on doors immediately to get help.

And luckily, the man who answered the door at the second home was trustworthy and kind-hearted. He first let the children inside to use the phone. When he offered them a ride home, they took him up on it and were driven, in fact, home.

Their school bus driver's actions had left them no choice but to knock on strangers' doors and ultimately accept a ride from someone they didn't know -- things caring parents routinely warn their children not to do.

Bobby and Jacquelyn attend Southern Oak Elementary School in Largo and ride the bus every afternoon to their home in Orange Lake Village, near the intersection of Walsingham Road and Seminole Boulevard. But on Tuesday, the children said a bus driver filling in for the regular driver passed their stop and just kept going. Though Bobby said he tried to convince the driver of his error, the bus continued on 5 miles south on Seminole Boulevard before driver Ernie Crowly, 71, put the children out in a neighborhood they didn't know.

It is inconceivable that a bus driver would do such a thing, especially considering the tragedy that occurred in Hillsborough County three years ago when a child mistakenly dropped off 4 miles from his bus stop was struck by a car and killed while walking home.

It is also inconceivable that the Pinellas County school district let Crowly continue to drive a school bus after the incident was reported last week.

Why didn't Crowly, a school bus driver since 1997, know the protocol for such a situation? If he didn't know what to do when the children said he had missed their stop, why didn't he call a supervisor to get direction?

And why didn't the school district, having received such an allegation about Crowly, take him off the job until it could investigate and determine the facts? In failing to do so, the district potentially put at risk all those children who rode Crowly's bus on subsequent days.

Driving a school bus is a tough job, and it doesn't pay well. But it is a position of public trust. Parents count on the school district to hire drivers carefully, and they count on drivers to be safety conscious and use good judgment in dealing with the children. Most drivers do an admirable job.

But when there is a bad mistake, as there apparently was in this case, the driver should be fired or given a job better suited to his capabilities. The safety of children should be paramount.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright